The art of resting is an essential part of creativity. ~ Unknown
Things have been busy for me the last six weeks. My sleep has been interrupted. I’ve experienced some anxiety. I’ve felt irritable on mornings when I have felt exhausted and it has been difficult to get going. I have craved relaxation and routine. These are flags telling me that I need to create some space in my life for returning to balance. I need to slow down life, step away from my constant to-do-list to simplify, and to schedule unstructured “me” time. This week I am slowing the pace and this will be reflected in this shorter blog post.
Mental Health Days are not specifically for people with lived experience of mental illness, although they can be crucial for those in mental health recovery. A mental health day is taking a day of rest and rejuvination, whatever that means to you. For some it will be a day in their pajamas and for others it will be disconnecting from their phone and spending time outside. There are many ways to rest.
A mental health day can be more than just a day of course. It can be whatever you need to address stress and overwhelm that may be impacting your mental health. It can also be a tool to use if you feel like stress might put you at risk for an episode. For me, if I lose my appetite because of my anxiety, experience nightly insomnia, panic attacks, and feel consistantly anxious throughout the day for an extended period of time, I know that I am at risk for an episode. When these symptoms arrive, I know self-care in the form of radical rest is essential.
If we know we need rest and relaxation for our mental health, what stops us? Here are some different reasons that have stopped me of choosing the rest I have needed:
- Striving for perfection
- An addiction to “doing”
- Guilt that I am letting down people – this is a big one*
- A denial (which is really fear) that my mental health is suffering
- Not knowing what I can let go of
- Being so overtired that I am not thinking straight
- Following a list of “shoulds” in life, especially the belief that “I should be able to manage everything on my plate”
- Feeling overly excited and wanting to stay up late, socialize etc.
- Choosing to work so much that it drains me
- Overcommitting in all aspects of my life
- Committing to things that are stressful for me
- Not expressing my true feelings about things which builds my stress
If you see red flags around your mental health, would you be able to step back and give yourself a day, a week, or month with less stress to potentially avoid an episode? Could you try to restructure your life in a way that is less stressful for your mental health? Or perhaps develop more tools that makes it easier to handle inevitable life stress? When you feel exhausted, anxious, or irritable, it is important to check in about your mental health and make a plan about what you need to bring your body back into a relaxed state.
How can creativity help you in this quest for rest?
When I reflect on pacing in my typical day, I see how I use creativity to ground, which enables me to rest. I like to start with a slow morning and time to write morning pages, a practice created by author Julia Cameron. Three freehand pages freeing myself from worries preventing me from resting. Being able to rest the brain is a big part of rest in general. At times, I also need to write at the end of the day if things surface in the day that I need to process.
Sometimes I’ll channel my tension into a poem. I will turn grief, frustration, anger or fear into something meaningful. This helps to integrate my stress and provides a release of feelings that have become overwhelming. In the book, Poetry in Expressive Arts,” Margo Fuchs Knill and Sally Atkins write, “Poetry can build resilience and create hope and confidence as a platform for healing, reconcilliation, problem solving, and personal and professional development” (2021, p.27).
I also consider movement in the evening a creative practice. Creativity is an energy or intention that brings stillness and healing. Choosing yoga, breathwork, or stretching is a way of shifting my busy mind into my body and slowing down towards sleep. Also practicing mindfulness is very calming.
Finally, I use creativity before bed in the visualizations that I have described before that were developed from EMDR therapy. I use my imagination to centre myself, and to help my nervous system relax which helps me become sleepy.
It is also important to think of rest as relational. We need to let people know our needs around rest and its importance for our mental health. Sometimes creativity is needed for finding solutions that honour our need for rest and allow for connection with another person. In June’s posts, I will explore connection, needs, and boundaries and how to navigate relationships and mental health.
Okay, are you ready to dive into making art?🎨
Therapeutic Arts Activity
Plan a mental health day that helps you relax.
Instructions
Think about your level of stress or overwhelm. Do you need a mental health day? If you feel okay now, look forward into your year, can you see upcoming stressors and plan some space in your calendar for self-care at that time?
Materials Needed
- Whatever you need to relax
Once you’ve completed this activity, here are some questions as guidelines for your personal explorations:
1. What are your needs around rest for your mental health?
2. Have you used mental health days in your recovery?
3. How would you rate your current stress levels?
4. What is one way you could add rest into your life? What is one way you could change a stressful situation in your life?
Mental health days can be used by anyone. They can be a crucial form of self-care. Ideally it would be great if we could pace life so that our mental health doesn’t need full days of rest. However, unexpected life circumstances can make life overwhelming. It is crucial to have tools to bring ourselves back to feeling regulated. ❤️❤️❤️ With care and kindness, Meegan
In the spirit of creating a community of reflection and art making, your comments are welcome. If you choose to leave a comment, it is important to know I respect your privacy. Your information will not be given, lent, rented, or sold to anyone. However, when making a comment on the site, your IP address and browser user will be collected. Please see full Privacy details on my Privacy Policy Page Privacy Policy. If you are having a mental health emergency, please take care of yourself, and call 911 or take yourself to emergency at your closest hospital.
Source
Knill, Margo Fuchs and Atkins, Sally S. Poetry in Expressive Arts: Supporting Resilience through Poetic Writing. Jessica Kingsley Publishers: London and Philadelphia.
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